Mormonism: Another Jesus?

Mormonism: Another Jesus?
By Ed Decker

The Christ of Mormonism is not the same Christ of the Bible. 2 Cor.11:3-5 tells us that there will be those who would teach a different Christ. Paul says of them, "For such men are false apostles, deceitful workmen, masquerading as apostles of Christ". There is a Biblical warning about those who would bring the doctrine of another Jesus and a simple test. Do the Mormons and their Jesus pass that test? No.

The Mormons have a difficult time understanding what actually happened at Calvary. In their pamphlet, WHAT THE MORMONS THINK OF CHRIST, we see the problem. In the section, The Blood of Christ (page 22 in the 1976 edition), we read:

"Christians speak often of the blood of Christ and its cleansing power. Much that is believed and taught on this subject, however, is such utter nonsense and so palpably false that to believe it is to lose one’s salvation. For instance, many believe or pretend to believe that if we confess Christ with our lips and avow that we accept him as our personal savior, we are thereby saved. They say that his blood, without any other act than mere belief, makes us clean.

"What is the true doctrine of the blood of Christ? Salvation comes because of the atonement, and the atonement was wrought through the shedding of the blood of Christ. In Gethsemane Christ sweat great drops of blood from every pore when he conditionally took upon himself the sins of the world, and then the shedding of his blood was completed upon the cross."

This is not the Biblical account of the Atonement! Jesus went to Gethsemane to pray and prepare. The Atonement was the Cross! The garden was the sanctification of the sin offering (Leviticus 4:3-5) to be given ONCE - for all - at the cross.

The LDS Church teaches in its Articles of Faith, Article 3, "We believe that through the atonement of Christ, all mankind may be saved, by obedience to the laws and ordinances of the gospel (The MORMON gospel)". These Mormon laws and ordinances have been placed there, in the way of the Cross, blocking the LDS people from it and its cleansing power!

The Bible clearly teaches another Christ; and another gospel... In Col. 2:13-15 Paul writes: "And you, being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath he quickened together with him, having forgiven you all trespasses; Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross; And having spoiled principalities and powers, he made a shew of them openly, triumphing over them in it."

The Mormon Jesus has been stripped of his unique Deity and his sacrifice on the cross has been robbed of its power. Theirs is a tragically bloodless Christ, whose death only brought us immortality, NOT eternal life. Their Jesus forces us under laws, ordinances and an all-too-human priesthood. This is not the "Good News" of the Bible:

How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God? And for this cause He is the mediator of the new testament, that by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions that were under the first testament, they which are called might receive the promise of eternal inheritance...Nor yet that he should offer himself often, as the high priest entereth into the holy place every year with blood of others.

For then must He often have suffered since the foundation of the world: but now once in the end of the world hath He appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself." (Hebrews 9:14-15, 25-26)

Hebrews 10:28 states: "He that despised Moses’ law died without mercy under two or three witnesses: Of how much sorer punishment, suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy, who hath trodden under foot the Son of God, and hath counted the blood of the covenant, wherewith He was sanctified, an unholy thing, and hath done despite unto the Spirit of grace?"

In the early LDS church, there was a more orthodox Christ preached. But, when Joseph began to teach the strange doctrines of this different Christ, one without the redemptive powers, the church could no longer deal with the reality of the blood of Calvary and its full redemptive work. That was when the church removed the red wine from the communion table and went to water. This act literally washed away the reality of the blood from its basically Christian converts. The same holds true today. The cross and the blood have become strangers to the saints.